Archive | August, 2011

By on August 25, 2011 in Editing Basics

It Was Raining, You Know? Did I Tell You It Was Raining? A Nor’easter If Ever There Was One Rehashing what the reader already knows. Definition: Hanging on a plot point too long as a way to make sure the reader gets it, OR as a way to boost word count. This is a big struggle for a lot of writers. I see this in published books all the time. The heroine ponders the hero’s invitation to dinner for three chapters. The hero ponders asking the heroine to dinner for a whole chapter. The heroine ponders her future husband while pondering what she has to do to save the family estate – for sixty pages. Don’t linger! Move the story forward. Set the problem once and move one. Hint at it one more […]

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Ten Common Author Mistakes. #4

By on August 4, 2011 in Author Mistakes, Editing Basics, Rachel Hauck

You do realize these common author mistakes I’m blogging about are my opinion only and not subject to any known or award winning authors. I formulated these ten things while on a reading spree this summer. So, take them for what they are worth. Okay, numero quatro! He said, She Said. They Came, They Saw, They Went Leaving the reader suspended in time and space. This one actually surprised me. But I read several novels recently — one a YA and the other an historical — and I was lost on where I was as the reader. I wasn’t sure how much time had advance. The scene’s stage had little to no description. I couldn’t get a feel for the “space” the characters lived in. In the YA, the protagonist […]

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